Also, my apologies for the lateness of some of the invitations to you. With tremendous support from David McCredie[3] we were snowballing the names of those invited to come, and suggestions just kept coming forward.

This idea for this Witness seminar on the University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics at the Royal Children's Hospital[4] started with a conversation I had with Janet McCalman[5] at the Vice-Chancellor’s Annual Retreat earlier this year.

We discussed the possibility of a seminar and I thank her and Ann Westmore[6] who is leading us through this project today. It's gathered momentum and we’re really very excited about it.

During the day, Kate Bride, manager of the Department of Paediatrics, and Natashya Kostas, who is secretary of our Department, will be popping in. In the versatile nature of administrative staff these days Natashya said she'd put on her black and whites and pour the wine for lunch. Also, a special thanks to David McCredie who’s held my hand through this and I really thank you, David, for that support. David has an international visitor who arrived this morning and was at the airport at half past five. So thank you, David, for fitting us all in.

This is only the beginning of the history project. As many of you know the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences has undertaken a history project.[7] This seminar on the University Department of Paediatrics will fit into that both in the web-based form which is our first attempt, and subsequently as we move forward to the next stages.[8]

It's really been interesting for me that no-one has said, Why are we doing this seminar? There’s been an implicit acceptance that this is an important and a timely thing to do. I think the timeliness was heightened by the recent passing of David Danks.[9] It’s wonderful that you are here today, June[10] , so thank-you. But it was a reminder to us of the importance of recording the history of events, particularly with regard to paediatrics and the role that the University Department played in paediatrics generally as well as specifically with regard to this University and the Royal Children’s Hospital.

For me, as a lateral entry paediatrician, if you will, history's always been very important. One of the people who was most affirming and welcoming to me when I came to the Children’s Hospital in 1991 was Howard Williams.[11] He took it upon himself, in the way that you will know, to sit alongside me at certain functions. I remember a bus trip that the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand organized as part of a meeting in Queensland. Howard spent an hour each way on an excursion, giving me some history, as well as supporting and affirming me in my new role at the Children’s Hospital. And he continued to do that.

So history's been very important to me personally. It was also very important to me in coming to the Children’s Hospital, to receive the support that I got in that historical connection obviously from Peter Phelan[12] but also from John Maurice Court who, in his inimitable style, may pop in and out as he’s still busy seeing patients.[13]

I can see how if we don't provide our history in an accessible way, those who come after us, the wonderful young people who are coming through paediatrics in the University Department at the Children’s Hospital, won’t know. And it’s really important that they do.

History's always important but it’s particularly important in this time because of where child health is at in a nation that is increasingly ageing. It’s important that we create this firm base on which to build our advocacy for children. Paediatrics is not under threat, but it is challenged by the demographics and by the economic nature of some of the decision-making on social policy.

It's also important - and most of you won’t know, but Peter Phelan does, because he’s been helping me with this - that the University of Melbourne and the Hospital are renegotiating their affiliation agreement. Now, in the past, these agreements have been, "We’re good fellows, and it’s all OK" to some extent.[14] But in these days of compliance and litigation, indemnity and costs, this has become a major project.

It is among the most important strategic issues for the Committee of Deans of Australian Medical Schools. According to the Vice-Chancellor of this University, the relationship between its Medical School and its Teaching Hospitals is the single most important factor to be resolved at this University. It poses the greatest potential threat to this University of just about anything else at the moment because roughly half the University size economically is the Medical School, and the Medical School can't exist without its agreements with the Teaching Hospitals.

So it's a very important time for us to affirm the important role of academia, scholarship, learning and research, in the context of a teaching hospital. In order to do that in this agreement we have to be quite secure about where we’ve come from and who we are as an academic department of paediatrics. So it’s quite critical to that too. Well, that’s enough from me. Thank you again for coming. I’m sure we’re going to enjoy the day and I’m now going to pass to Janet McCalman.

Witness to the History of Australian Medicine